Main menu

JOHN LEWIS & WAITROSE REBRANDS

John Lewis and Waitrose have launched their first ever joint marketing campaign as they reveal new brand identities to mark their rebrands to John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners.

The rebrand is part of their larger campaign titled ‘& Partners’ created by creative agency adam&eveDDB. The new campaign also reveals the group’s brand new strap line ‘For us, it’s personal,’ which has since been rolled out concurrently across both brands.

The main aim of the campaign is to emphasise the group’s USP – John Lewis and Waitrose are effectively owned by their employees – a move they are hoping will provide a halo effect for both the John Lewis and Waitrose brands in the face of challenging market conditions for high-street retailers.

The advent of online shopping has eroded department store’s main selling point of offering different brands under the same roof and across the board they are struggling to generate sales and profit growth.

However, the launch of the ‘& Partners’ campaign comes at a particularly awkward time for a campaign stressing the John Lewis partnership model – with the retail giant cutting 270 jobs this month.

It’s undoubtedly a severely uncertain period for the high street’s department stores. Rival House of Fraser collapsed into administration last month, only to be rescued by discount sportswear giant Sports Direct. Debenhams has already issued three profit warnings this year and is also cutting jobs.

The campaign also features a 150-second film in which a group of school children stage a theatrical reimagining of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ which was first aired during The Great British Bake Off.

Staff will also feature in a series of fashion, home product and food films that will run on the brand’s social media channels under the hashtag #wearepartners.

John Lewis Partnership chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield has promised more focus on ‘the customer and innovation,’ as well as on it’s partners to deliver ‘real value and experience for customers.’